The only winners in Trump's 'legally indefensible' attack on California's emissions rules are the oil companies

The Trump administration will have to go far to outdo, for sheer fatuousness and self-refutation, the excuses it trotted out Thursday for freezing government auto emissions standards and attacking California's right to set its own rules.

The regulatory proposal unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation had been telegraphed in April. That's when then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced his intention to roll back the federal goal of an average vehicular efficiency standard of more than 54.5 mpg by 2025. All that was added on Thursday was a new proposed standard, which is 37 mpg.

Pruitt already had said he was prepared to revoke the waiver, written into